Kennebunkport Town Hall

One of the questions on the ballot this fall is the construction of a new town hall. The current Town Offices have been housed at 6 Elm Street for 63 years. Over the past six decades, the Town has changed, and town hall operations have outgrown the space. Many of these issues revolve around lack of space for the public including the lack of available waiting space for citizens, no available absentee ballot service area, the absence of space for meeting with citizens, and inadequate parking for the public and employees. The new offices would accommodate secured storage space for valuable Town historical documents and increase needed staff space.

Community Survey

With the appointment of five new members, the Kennebunkport Town Hall Building Committee has resumed work to bring forward a new project for voter consideration. As it gets underway, the Committee put forth a survey gather public input to better understand why the town hall vote was not successful in November of 2023. The results of the survey can be found below:

Town Hall Community Survey Results Winter 2024

Video Tour of current Town Hall

FAQ

An FAQ on the Town Hall project has been developed to answer the most frequently asked questions about this project. It is also available as a PDF (Download Town Hall FAQ PDF).

Files and Presentations

The proposed Town Hall is 12,661 square feet and the projected cost is $8.8 million. The Board of Selectmen is working on ways to lower the tax impact for residents. For more information, please see the documents below:

Information about Sites Considered:
Below are detailed and summary versions of an evaluation matrix of the various sites considered for a new town hall.

Additional resources/information:

The Fall 2022 Town Newsletter: An article on page 2 entitled Town Hall is Planning for the Future summarizes the process to that point.
The Fall 2023 Town Newsletter: The article on pages 1 and 2 reviews all questions on the November 2023 ballot, including the construction of a new town hall.
Presentation from joint meeting of Budget Board and Select Board on September 11, 2023

Additional information about the election including a copy of the ballot questions and information on how to register to vote and absentee voting can be found on the Elections and Voting page.

A History of the Project

The Board of Selectmen began the Town Hall design process in 2019 when they undertook a programming space analysis to determine the programming space needs for the five departments currently housed in the existing town hall. In June of 2022 funding was allocated for the design and construction plans for the project and the Town hired Sebago Technics and Grant Hayes Architects to assist with the plan and design phase. The Selectboard appointed a Town Hall building committee in October of 2022 comprised of seven residents, two selectboard members and six staff members to work with the consultants through the design phase. The committee met multiple times from October 2022 through June 2023 and reviewed over seven designs including both single and multi-story structures.

The committee selected the current single-story design that allows easy access for the public to all meeting spaces and departments within the proposed 12,661 square foot building.

The space is broken down as follows:

            Office spaces              5,728 sqft.
            Meeting rooms            2,128 sqft.
            Functional Support     1,728 sqft.
            Circulation                  2,068 sqft.
            Mechanicals                1,009 sqft.

The Town Hall Building Committee made their presentation to the Selectboard at the July 13, 2023, meeting. During the presentation the consultants reviewed the current cost estimate of $8.8 million for the project assuming a 2024 construction start. During the next few meetings the Selectboard discussed ways to lower the property tax impact to its taxpayers. As a result of that dialogue the Selectboard is bringing forward the following proposal for voter consideration. The request is to bond the project and authorize the use of reserve funds, sale proceeds from two properties (including the current town hall) and to raise funds from public donations. The goal is to reduce the bond request from $8.8 million to $5.8 million by the use of reserves, fundraising, and the sale of property. The presentation can be seen here: Presentation on Town Hall Update from July 13, 2023 BOS Meeting. This presentation includes the process, projected cost estimate, and architectural designs.

outside rendering of town hall

Town Hall Building Committee Members

The members of the Town Hall Building Committee were appointed at the October 13, 2022 Select Board Meeting.

The minutes from that meeting can be found here: Oct 13, 2022 Select Board Meeting Minutes
The video from that meeting can be found here: Oct 13, 2022 Select Board Meeting Video

Name	Position
COMMITTEE 2023
April Dufoe	Resident
David Graham	Resident
Jessica Kimball	Resident
Judith Phillips	Resident
Richard Smith	Resident
Deb Bauman	Resident
Larry Simmons	Resident
Eric Labelle	Staff - Deputy Public Works Director/Principal Engineer
Nicole Evangelista	Staff - Finance Director
Tracey O'Roak	Staff - Town Clerk
Werner Gilliam	Staff - Director of Planning and Codes
Yanina Nickless	Staff - Director of Support Services
Laurie Smith	Staff - Town Manager
Jon Dykstra	Select Board Member
Mike Weston	Select Board Member

COMMITTEE 2024
April Dufoe	Resident
David Graham	Resident
Judith Phillips	Resident
Richard Smith	Resident
Deb Bauman	Resident
Kevin McDonnell	Resident
Tim Pattison	Resident
John Ware	Resident
Allan Evelyn	Resident
Galen Weibley	Staff - Director of Planning and Development
Yanina Nickless	Staff - Director of Support Services
Laurie Smith	Staff - Town Manager
Mike Weston	Select Board Member
Marybeth Gilbert	Select Board Member

Town Hall Building Committee Minutes

Click here to see the January 18, 2024, minutes
Click here to see the February 14, 2024 minutes
Click here to see the March 21, 2024 minutes

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Introduction to project